


Home for Easter

by ccshbh



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-20
Updated: 2019-04-20
Packaged: 2020-01-22 22:53:11
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,302
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18537112
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ccshbh/pseuds/ccshbh
Summary: Betty brings Jughead home for Easter. Alice is being Alice and Jughead's had it with her attitude.





	Home for Easter

**Author's Note:**

  * For [oryoucouldstay](https://archiveofourown.org/users/oryoucouldstay/gifts).



> All the credit for this goes to my lovely Anne.

He never thought that he could be this nervous. That his hands would be shaking so much that he’d rather leave it to Betty to drive their rented car from the airport to her little hometown of Riverdale. He never thought, that he would have to take off his beanie, because he could feel the sweat pooling under it on his forehead. How was this happening to him? Him, Jughead Jones, who had exactly three things in his life that he got excited about: Betty, food and movies. Not always in that order. How was he this freaking nervous about meeting his girlfriend’s parents?

Okay, part of it might be Betty’s fault. After she had told him everything about her mother, the way she’d treated her and how long it had taken Betty to break free from that mold, he isn’t sure if he is supposed to just hate Alice Cooper or be scared shitless.

They’d been together for a year now, but Betty’s general reluctance to go back to Riverdale, even during summer break and the fact, that they both were going to school on the other end of the country (“Seriously Jug, my mom and I need 3000 miles of safety distance”), had never opened an opportunity for him to go and meet her parents.

Betty had met his father numerous times by now. After all, his old man lived just an hour outside Seattle and despite their tumultuous relationship during Jughead’s formative years, FP was now putting serious effort in trying to build any kind of connection with him. And Jughead appreciated that.

Furthermore, FP loved Betty. Sometimes, Jughead suspected, even a little bit more than he loved him. And he couldn’t blame FP for that. She was Betty after all. She was a walking bundle of sunshine, energized, an amazing cook, driven, beautiful and she knew what she wanted. Well, and she had an uncanny talent to kick his butt, whenever he gave into his tendencies of self-loathing and moodiness. Betty didn’t take his shit. It was probably the thing that he loved most about her.

She looks over at him now, takes her hand into his and rubs his palm soothingly.

“Its going to be fine, Juggie. You don’t have to be nervous. My mom will be suspicious and overprotective in the beginning, but when she gets to know you, she’ll open up. And my dad is an easy egg to crack. Just nod along to everything he says about sports and brash about investigative journalism with him and he’ll love you.”

“I’m not worried about your dad. It’s more your mom. What if she really despises me? I don’t want to sit through awkward family dinners and holidays for the rest of my life, Betts.”

She pauses at that, then smiles at him: “The rest of your life, huh?”

He turns his head towards her and smirks. “Come on, you know that. I’ve known you are the one from the moment you almost ran me over in the library.”

“I so did not.” Betty huffs and Jughead laughs. Its feels good to think about the day they met, about how adorable she looked when she turned beet-red and whispered apologies to him. It calms his nerves.

“Anyhow, if my mom doesn’t like you, well… then she’ll either have to live with it or she won’t see a lot of her daughter for the rest of her life. That’s her choice.”

“Betts…” Jughead starts, but she shakes her head vigorously.

“No Jug. I’m done taking her shit. I haven’t come this far for her to burn it all to the ground again. She has to accept that I’m not that little girl anymore that obeys to every perfectionist standard she has. I’m what I’m and you are a big part of that now. Period.”

She looks so determined when she says that, so fierce, that he is tempted to tell her to pull over to the side of the road, just so that he can kiss her.

Instead, he locks their fingers, kisses the back of her hand and murmurs: “You are amazing.”

…

They arrive in Riverdale about an hour later and although Betty had described her childhood home to him, everything, from the red door, to her notoriously pink childhood bed room, Jughead is still stunned when they approach her house.

It’s bigger than anything he has ever lived in. Hell, it is bigger than anything anyone he knows has ever lived in.

Betty intertwines their fingers and squeezes his hand reassuringly.

“Its alright Juggie.” she whispers and knocks on the door.

It opens sharply, and Alice Cooper stands in the frame, eyebrow arched, hands on her hips.

“You are late.”

Betty rolls her eyes and heaves an amused sigh.

“It’s nice to see you too, mom.”

“Hello Elizabeth.” Alice says and despite the intimidating glare, her face seems to lighten up a little as she gives Betty a hug. When she straightens again and turns towards Jughead though, her face has taken back the same icy expression as before.

“And you must be Jug-head, then.”

He suppresses the urge to roll his eyes. Over the years, Jughead has heard a lot of stupid questions regarding his nickname and quite a few mispronunciations, but “Jug-head” is a new one.

As if she could read his thoughts, Betty says: “Its ‘Jughead’ mom. There is no pause between the syllables.”

Alice brushes over her daughters’ comment and holds out her hand.

“It’s so nice to finally meet you, after Betty has been hiding you from us for such a long time.”

And after Jughead takes her hand and shakes it she adds: “But in all honesty, Jughead is just a nickname, right? It’s not your birthname, I suppose.”  

“No, that one is worse.” Jughead answers and wants to slap himself the second the words leave his mouth.

Alice quirks an eyebrow: “Nevertheless I would like to hear it.”

Of course. He should have known the moment he walked through the door. Of course, Alice Cooper is going to be one of those people that insists on calling him by his birthname. After all, she just called her daughter Elizabeth. He is pretty sure none of their friends in Seattle even knows that Betty’s full name is Elizabeth.

“It’s uhm… it’s Forsythe.” he says and Alice nods.

“Now that’s a proper name. You wouldn’t mind if I called you that, right?”

He has half a mind to argue, like he always does when people call him Forsythe, but he wants this visit to go at least semi-well and if he is being honest, a small part of him even wants Betty’s parent’s approval, so he swallows the words and instead says: “Yeah, that’s okay.”

“Great.” Alice sounds almost cheery now. “Come with me then Forsythe, I’ll show you where you will sleep. We’ve prepared the guestroom for you.”

At that, Betty behind him snorts and Alice turns around again, a mildly disgusted look on her face. The very unladylike sound her daughter just made, is obviously not Alice-Cooper-approved behavior. Jughead however is beyond amused.

“Is there something wrong Elizabeth?” she asks and Betty snorts again.

“Mom, Jughead is not going to sleep in the guest room.”

“And where do you suggest he will be sleeping then, dear?”

“In my room.”

Alice lets out a gasp at that and Betty rolls her eyes again. By now, the only thing Jughead can do is stare. At Betty, that is. He knew that his girlfriend was fierce, but this is a whole new level. Its kind of hot too.

Before Alice can say another word, Betty grabs Jughead’s hand and pulls him down the hallway, towards a flight of stairs. On the ways she says: “Hi dad.” to a man with dark blond hair, that seemed to be waiting for them on the couch.

Hal Cooper is about to stand up to great them, but before he can, Betty is already pulling Jughead up the stairs.

“We’ll be down in a second, dad” she says over her shoulder and Jughead tries to look at her dad apologetically.

When they reach what seems to be Betty’s old bed room, she shuts the door behind them with a little more force than necessary, leans against it and groans.

“I’m so sorry Jug. She is unbelievable.”

Jughead steps towards her and wraps her up in his arms.

“It’s okay.” he murmurs. “I’m a big boy. I can handle it.”

…

Three days later, Jughead realizes that he can NOT handle Alice Cooper.

Hal had been rather easy to get along with. Apart from his obsession with the local basketball team and all the car talk Jughead doesn’t understand a single word of, it is actually fun to discuss everything, from writing styles to world politics, with Betty’s dad.

But her mom? Her mom is on a whole other level. She seems to always have a task for them in the preparations for Easter. Which in theory Jughead doesn’t mind at all. But in practice, Alice always seems to find tasks that keep Betty on one end of the house and him on the other. Apparently, she thinks that every minute they’d be left unsupervised, would end up in the possible conception of a grandchild before marriage. As if they hadn’t slept in the same bed nearly every night for the past 7 months.

But that is not even what irks Jughead the most. What irks him the most is the way Alice Cooper treats her daughter regarding everything about her diet. It’s the small little comments (“Elizabeth dear, you gained a little weight lately, haven’t you?”), the throat clearings and glares every time Betty dares to touch any other food then fruit or vegetables. She acts as if his girlfriend might explode from one piece of cake. With every comment, he can see Betty’s initial defiance towards her mother falter a little more.

By the morning of Easter Monday, he is so fed up with it, that when Alice clears her throat at Betty for putting too much sugar into her coffee, he dumbs an extra load of syrup onto his stack of pancakes, swaps his plate with hers and says: “Here baby. You’ve been getting awfully thin lately and I can use the vitamins.”

Betty nearly spits out the orange juice she is drinking and Jughead thinks that from the corner of his eye, he can even see Hal suppress a smile, but Alice seems to be truly appalled.

“Excuse me, Forsythe, but that is not a breakfast for a young lady.”

Remember that part of Jughead, that three days ago wanted the approval of Betty’s parents? It just died.

The fork he is holding drops onto the plate noisily and this time it is him glaring at Alice.

“Oh, it isn’t?” he spits out. “And who says that? You? Because I have no idea how you see your daughter, but the last thing she needs is to count calories and avoid sugar. I have, in my life, not seen a more beautiful creature walk this earth and you are really telling me that that is ‘not a breakfast for a young lady’? With all due respect Mrs. Cooper, but I’ve been watching this for three days now and I’ve had it. Your daughter is a fucking adult. She doesn’t need your approval for every meal she eats. You know that toxic behavior like that can break people, right? That it can scar them for life? Does the word eating disorder ring a bell? To be honest, I have no idea, how she became such a wonderful human being with a mother like you. It’s truly beyond me.”

With that, he gets up, reaches his hand out to Betty and asks: “You want to go home babe?”

…

None of them says anything until they are two blocks away from Betty’s childhood home and Jughead pulls into the parking lot of a 7/11. He isn’t really sure if he did the right thing, because Betty hasn’t said a word since he’d freaked out on her mom and he can’t read the expression on her face.

“Betty? Babe, I’m sorry if I insulted your mom back there, I just couldn’t watch her treat you like that any…” but before he can finish the sentence, she is suddenly all over him. Her lips are on his, her hands are in his hair and her tongue is sweeping along his bottom lip.

He melts into the kiss until they both have to pull back for air.

Then he leans his forehead against hers, eyes still closed and smiles.

“I suppose that means you are not mad at me?”

Betty chuckles and cups one of his cheeks in her hand. “Oh god Juggie, no. I have in my life never seen anyone step up to my mom in the way you just did. And the fact that you did that for me… it just… you know, no one ever cared enough to say anything. Although they all saw how she treated me. And not just me, my sister too. The fact that you just did that, it makes me feel so loved. Plus, it was kind of hot.”

He laughs at that and pecks her lips again. “Thank god. She won’t be having us over for a holiday any time soon, though.”

Betty shrugs: “Seriously, I couldn’t care less right now.”

Then, her eyes flicker over to the 7/11 they are parked in front and when they meet Jughead’s again he knows that she is thinking the exact same thing.

“Hey, do you wanna…” she starts.

“Go in there, clear the candy isle and eat it all before we even board the plane back to Seattle? Hell, yeah.”


End file.
